True North

I’m going to pick on Marty Seifert’s “Welfare Plan” but being honest, I know that the attitude reflected in Marty’s plan and a lot of the specifics in his plan are supported across the Republican Party and supported by more than a few people who support my guy, Tom Emmer. I see in Marty’s plan a few pick-ups from things Tom has advocated. Nonetheless, here goes – Republicans have to stop denigrating welfare recipients for applause.

I don't expect that to be a popular posiition.

Two things typical of the Republican approach to welfare jump out in Marty’s “plan.” The first is the obligatory nod to compassion – “As Minnesotans, we all care about those who cannot help themselves: the elderly, disabled and those who have insurmountable challenges” – followed by the pitch for individual charity, followed by the idea that the way to reduce welfare need is creating more jobs. The second typical characteristic of Republican welfare reform is Marty’s plan says nothing about solving the problem of “those who cannot help themselves: the elderly, disabled and those who have insurmountable challenges”; Marty’s plan is all about how to fix the welfare system.

The latter approach – fixing the system not the problem -- is the way Democrats work. Democrats are all about tinkering with a system (think public education) but not really helping people (think achievement gap). Marty’s plan, and the GOP position on welfare generally, is all about fixing the welfare system so it matches a traditional Republican portrait of virtue, but it does virtually nothing to define and clarify just what is government’s legitimate “welfare” role.” Between the lines Marty (and Republicans in general) desperately wants to say government has no role whatsoever in welfare, but he (they) just can’t bring himself to say it and accept the political fallout and responsibility for the inevitable real-world consequences.

Let’s be clear: The progressive, Democratic philosophy of “entitlement” – that everyone is “entitled” to a certain quality of life as a “right” -- is a fundamentally immoral position that requires the state to take from some for the specific benefit of others. Yes, we have a broken welfare system that perversely motivates behaviors that are harmful to the “common good.” Yes, the system needs to be fixed. But there is a difference between "entitlement" and a "safety net" that, frankly, neither party has the will or courage to tackle.

At the end of the day, “the poor will always be with us,” and at some point the Republican Party is going to have to come to grips with that. Marty’s plan, and again I am using Marty’s plan as the generic Republican approach to welfare, starts from the point of “this is what we are NOT going to do” for people. Marty’s plan does not concern itself with the inevitable unintended consequence that removing “cheaters” from the system means that some truly needy people will also fall through the cracks (compare to Democrats who oppose school choice without considering their policy locks good students in bad schools). The problem Marty is trying to solve is fixing the system, not addressing the problem.

From a pragmatic perspective, getting all Marty’s proposals through the Legislature is as likely stopping the tingle in Chris Mathews' leg whenever Obama walks on stage. Too much visceral reaction. Ain’t gonna happen.

Money point: What the GOP needs is someone with a little political courage to step up and define the proper role of government vis-à-vis “those who cannot help themselves: the elderly, disabled and those who have insurmountable challenges” – what as a society we are going to do to help them and how we are going to do it AND how will that both benefit those needing help and Minnesota in general – and then dismantle everything else. Marty’s plan, the GOP approach in general, is the assbackwards DFL approach of tweaking the system and ignoring the problem.

Just my two cents (plus tax).

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